The food service industry, as well as homemakers and novice chefs, often encounter difficulty in preparing sauces, soups and similar semi-viscous foodstuffs. Typically, such foodstuffs must be prepared in large pots or saucepans and require frequent stirring and mixing to ensure uniform cooking and to prevent the food stuff from coagulating, burning or adhering to the walls of the pot or saucepan. This task often proves daunting and frustrating for the food preparer in that he or she may also be busy with numerous other time consuming tasks and unable to periodically attend to the pot or saucepan for the requisite stirring or mixing. As a result, the consistency and quality of the foodstuffs present in the pot or saucepan may be seriously degraded due to a lack of proper stirring/mixing.
There have been numerous attempts in the prior art to provide automatic stirrers which are adaptable to various kitchen pots and pans containing semi-viscous foodstuffs therein. Most of these devices prove extremely intricate and expensive to manufacture, however, and tend to be very inflexible with regards to their ability to be adapted to kitchen implements such as saucepans and stock-pots which are of unusual sizes.
One such device found in the prior art is U.S. Pat. No. 4,921,356 to Bordenga. This reference discloses a complex automatic stirrer having a number of legs which must be configured to fit the intended pot or saucepan. The device also employs an elongated shaft having a stirring paddle and optional stirring basket assembly attached at the end thereof. While accomplishing the task of stirring, the device nevertheless is bulky and awkward, proving cumbersome to install. U.S. Pat. No. 5,332,310 to Wells discloses a device similar in complexity. The Wells device, not unlike the Bordenga device, is extremely complicated and arduous to install. Furthermore, both devices and others like them in the prior art require the device central housing to be fixedly installed to the pot or saucepan at the lip, while a stirring paddle or similar agitating device extends downward into the material to be stirred. This arrangement of a distinct housing/stirring mechanism and it's required securement to the pot or saucepan results in these apparatus being very cumbersome to employ. A device is needed such as that of the instant invention which is simply placed upon the intended pot or saucepan and instantly begins stirring.
While these prior art units may be suitable for the particular purpose employed, or for general use, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as disclosed hereafter.